Ever since reading the first book on a mobile device – I do not recollect the name – I was a convert. Since then I have read multiple book on the mobile. The convenience of ebooks is so amazing. one of the best features is the ability to change the font size.

But the book I am presently reading has shown me some advantages of a paper book. the book is the guns of august, a book about world war I. the narration is accompanied by maps. in case of the ebook, it is difficult to quickly refer to a previous page with maps when reading a description of the various battles. with the ebook, I need to remember the page number and / or put a bookmark and also put a bookmark on the current page. with a page book, it is possible to keep one finger on the map page and one finger on the description and then quickly flip between the two fingermarks.

Many years ago, Douglas Adams wrote his famous novel ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ with the tag line ‘Trilogy in Four Parts’. While the whole novel is a marvelous read, the play of words – trilogy and four parts – was very interesting.

Recently, many people seem to have go into this game, as below
– The Harry Potter series of movies split the last book (seventh in the series) into two movies.
– The Hobbit – a single book – was made into three movies
– The Hunger Games also split the last book (third in the series) into two movies

Does it mean that the Happy Potter series of movies is a ‘septology in eight parts’ or an ‘octology from seven books’?

Recently, I read the second biography of Steve Jobs, namely ‘Becoming Steve Jobs’. While I had read the first biography ‘Steve Jobs’ written by Walter Issacson, my interest in the second one was piqued by the statements that put the first biography in bad light. Many people stated that the first biography presented Steve in bad light and much of the nastiness associated with Steve was not the truth and Steve was a gentler person in reality.

Having read both, there definitely is a difference in the way Steve’s life and achievements are presented in both books. The second book definitely presents a more humane side of Steve.

Some of the things not covered by the second biography, but are covered by the first biography are

Details of Steve’s visit to India

Steve asking people is they had dropped acid during their college days

No mention of the way in which he convinced Corning to put faith in the Gorilla Glass product and deliver it according to Steve’s timeline

Shortchanging the stock options for many colleagues that made Apple I happen

No mention of the word ‘reality distortion field’

No mention of ‘thermo-nuclear war with Android’

No mention of the hectic travel that Steve put in commuting between Pixar and NeXT

What the second book mentions, which is not covered by the first book

Tim Cook offering a part of his liver to Steve, given that both have some rare blood type

Some of the aspects of the Disney-Pixar merger

The second biography presents a more humane version of Steve Jobs. Both books are worth reading as they give us a better picture of Steve Jobs and also tellingly cover how the perspectives of people can be shaped by the words they read and how people develop opinions based on the written word, even when they have never experienced in person, the thing being written about.

Interestingly, another book, namely Creativity Inc. is also an interesting read. Though it is a business book written by Ed Catmull of Pixar, it contains a lot of information about Steve’s involvement in Pixar.

Similar to the Wimpy Kid series, I picked up the Heroes of Olympus series. Initially, it was an interesting read. After finishing the first series, I picked up the second series. But then in the last two novels, I simply read them to complete the series and get it to a logical conclusion.

Recently, I finished reading the book ‘Mission R&AW’. The book as a lucky find in the library as I was simply browsing books that had being returned.

I came to know a lot about the situation of India with regards to hotly discussed topics like Kashmir, China, Bangladesh and the like. While the content of the book is nice, it has been let down by the editor. There are many mistakes in sentence construction and many sentences could have been written with more crispness.

This book is an excellent example of how, even after having good content, an idea/concept/book/movie/software is let down do to ‘related’ aspects that help shape it up.

Recently, I read the classic book ‘Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

While I had heard about this book a couple of times, I never got the chance to pick it up, which I recently did.

While the book is very small in size, it depicts quite well, what happens to ‘educated’ and ‘cultured’ society members, once they face adversities. It shows how ‘educated British’ boys show their primal behaviour and how ‘order in society’ quickly collapses when multiple elements keep pulling it in different directions and agendas.

It shows quite well, how difficult it is to manage a society and get people to stand behind you.